Newly eligible for a COVID shot? What you need to know about booking an appointment
The number of South Carolinians eligible for a COVID-19 jab more than doubled Monday, making the competition for vaccination appointments even fiercer than it had been.
State health officials said they’ve heard appointments are filling much more quickly than they were last week and expect the increased demand for bookings to continue for at least another week or more.
If you or a loved one are among the roughly 2.7 million South Carolinians newly eligible for a shot in the arm, but need help navigating the scheduling system, you’re in the right place.
Here are some tips:
Do you fit in to Phase 1b?
Before you attempt to schedule an appointment, you should first determine if you’re eligible as part of the Phase 1b expansion.
If you’re at least 55 years old, you qualify. If you have a “high-risk” medical condition — examples include cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity and others — or certain developmental disabilities, you’re eligible. And if you work in a job that puts you in frequent close and prolonged contact with other people, you can get a COVID-19 shot.
A full breakdown of the Phase 1b criteria is available on the state Department of Health and Environmental Control’s website, but don’t expect to find a complete list of qualifying professions or conditions. The state is operating on an honor system and taking people at their word, so if you determine that you qualify based on any of the criteria, you should feel free to schedule an appointment. You won’t be asked to provide proof that you actually meet the Phase 1b guidelines.
Once you’ve determined that you’re eligible for a jab, the challenge becomes scheduling an appointment.
Where to look when scheduling your COVID-19 shot
For people with internet access, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control’s vaccine locator website is your best bet for quickly finding vaccine providers near you and scheduling an appointment.
You can either enter a ZIP code to access a list of vaccine providers nearest you or enter an address and a search radius (between 0 and 90 miles) to display a map of providers within that specified range.
Whether you use the list or the map view, the vaccine locator serves you information on providers that are currently scheduling appointments, including their name, address, the brand of vaccine they’re carrying and often a link to their website, where you’ll need to go to schedule your appointment. DHEC’s vaccine tool also includes one-day mass vaccination clinics that are held periodically throughout the state and mobile vaccination clinics at churches, community centers and county health departments that are often held in rural or underserved areas.
If you’re not having success with DHEC’s site, the Boston Children’s Hospital operates a nationwide vaccine finder in partnership with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that works in a similar fashion. You just enter in your ZIP code and a search radius and the finder will populate a list of providers near you. Like DHEC’s tool, it only displays contact information for each provider and whether they currently have vaccine in stock, so you’ll have to click through to the provider’s website to schedule an appointment.
It takes time to book an appointment
Patience and a large window of time may be your friends as you try to find and book an appointment.
Why? Because while an online vaccine locator site may say a provider is currently scheduling appointments, there is no guarantee they actually will have any availability. DHEC officials say they update the vaccine locator map multiple times a day, but appointments fill quickly and information about scheduling availability may be, and often is, outdated on the state health agency’s site.
To know for sure whether a provider actually has any openings, you’ll need to click through to their website.
Each provider handles the scheduling process differently. Some may say up front that they have no current availability, while others ask you to create an account or answer a series of questions before unceremoniously telling you that they’re not currently scheduling anyone.
Some, but not all, providers who are fully booked maintain waiting lists and, if you sign up, will contact you when a slot opens up.
Check early and often
If none of the providers in your area have availability when you check, don’t despair. Spots can open up at any time and some providers add new appointments daily, so it’s worthwhile to check for availability multiple times a day, especially early in the morning.
Still need help?
Those who aren’t as comfortable setting up their vaccine appointment online can call DHEC’s vaccine information hotline at 1-866-365-8110, where operators are available to answer questions and provide vaccine provider contact information seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
While wait times were significant in the early days of the vaccine rollout, DHEC has since expanded the number of people staffing the line and officials said this week that waits are usually no more than a couple minutes.
Even if you are tech savvy, calling a provider and speaking to an actual person may be the best way to cut through the often confusing and sometimes conflicting information on their website.
They may even be able to give you tips like what time each day to check for appointments or how to procure vaccine doses that would otherwise go unused due to appointment no-shows.
SC making progress, but still limited by vaccine supply
As of Friday, 20% of South Carolina residents 15 and older had received at least one dose of vaccine and more than 11% were fully vaccinated, according to DHEC data.
While the state has been making steady progress getting shots into people’s arms over the past three months, it’s still millions of inoculations away from having vaccinated the 70%-80% of the population believed to be necessary for herd immunity.
The number of doses flowing into the state has increased in recent weeks — South Carolina is slated to receive about 115,000 first doses of vaccine this coming week — but supply still greatly lags behind demand and remains the limiting factor preventing more residents from getting shots.
As a result, scheduling a COVID-19 vaccination appointment in the coming days may be particularly challenging, DHEC senior deputy for public health Nick Davidson conceded Wednesday. But with some persistence and a little luck, everyone who wants a shot in the arm will eventually be able to get one.
“I know right now it can be a little bit frustrating just because there is such high demand, since we just opened up 1b,” Davidson said. “I think that will wane over time and people will have an easier time getting access.”